Books

An Untold Story of Hollywood

I Used To Be In Pictures

A fascinating insight into the Golden Age of Hollywood, the public and private face of an industry rarely explored in such an intimate fashion. ‘I Used to be in Pictures’ is a collection of unpublished correspondence between English born brothers, Austin and Howard Mutti-Mewse and some of the most celebrated and iconic film stars from the silent and ‘golden’ era of film-making. The brothers’ foray into this glamorous world began with a simple fan letter to Lillian Gish, followed by another to Douglas Fairbanks Jnr. This gave rise to a wealth of letter writing.

WHAT THE PRESS SAY:

I Used to be in Pictures tells us that even the most glamourous stars are human too

Michael Keating

Ink Media

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Fascinating

Dylan Jones

Editor GQ

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Extraordinary

Alex Blimes

Editor, Esquire

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An immense and remarkable book

Libby Purvis

Broadcaster Midweek BBC Radio 4

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love this book

Nicky Haslam

Writer, Spectator

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A beautifully illustrated book full of Hollywood stories – wonderful

Eammon Holmes

This Morning ITV

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It’s a case of what happened next, when the phone stopped ringing and the fan mail died off – I Used to be in Pictures has all the answers

Daniel Garcia Lopez

Icon, El Pais

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THE REPLIES

It’s 1992 and twin brothers Austin and Howard Mutti-Mewse are enjoying university life but they have a secret, they write to former silent stars. It all began at aged 12 in their grandmother’s living room, when contemporaries were emulating Michael J Fox, they were feasting on long forgotten silent with ink pen in hand. What followed was 20 years of correspondence accumulating in filing cabinets full of letters and photos from everyone; exotic vamp Pola Negri to All-American James Stewart’. Their weird hobby, now embraced and loved by more understanding fellow graduates, they are encouraged to full fill a lifetime wish to visit Hollywood but more importantly their pen pals. What follows is a funny, yet moving ‘on the road’ novel that poignantly reveals during pit-stops the gold behind the grey.

PRAWNS & OTHER PATIENTS

For Austin the life has gone out of death. As a 34 year old redundant obituary writer the prospect of finding writing work in the boondocks of a seaside town, slim. In the doldrums with a child on the way and a mortgage to pay, his wife realises a temporary solution in the small ad’s; “Wanted – doctor’s receptionist”. Hired, his adventures begin. When demanding Betty Oak arrives at a NHS surgery to see a doctor complaining of her perpetual pregnancy, she’s confronted by a tall, moustached, suave receptionist Austin who fancies himself in a white coat. After phantom pregnancies Betty Oak is eager to go full-term with a shoal of shellfish and on spying the newcomer amongst his bitchy all-female counterparts, finds Austin would make a suitable stepfather. Betty is one of many in a colourful kaleidoscopic pulse of characters; patients and staff, who brought together by illness, joy, heartache and the minimum wage battle the termination of the surgery in favour of modernisation.

A brief thank you from us

We wanted to create a platform for people to sample our writing. Combined, we wanted to bring colour to the stars of yesterday; who were anything but black and white. There was this gentleman’s agreement between us and a few of the old stars we knew that we’d take their names into the next century. Through our writing and this website, we're spreading the word far and wide so more will know the names of the forerunners to today stars and modern celebrities.